Jaruzelski Wins Vote -- Opponents Gone

WARSAW — Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Polish leader who crushed the Solidarity labor union with martial law in 1981, Thursday was re-elected first secretary of the ruling Communist Party.

During a party congress, Jaruzelski also supervised sweeping changes on the Central Committee that eliminated several of his opponents. More than 70 percent of the 230 members on the party's governing panel are new.

The party moves came as Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was under his fifth police interrogation since June 24. Walesa, a Nobel peace laureate, said he refused to answer questions that dealt with the outlawed union's underground coordinating committee.

Jaruzelski, who turns 63 Sunday, retains his jobs as president and supreme commander of the armed forces.

Among the casualties in the Jaruzelski-directed Central Committee changes was former First Secretary Stanislaw Kania, who led Poland for 13 months during the Solidarity era before Jaruzelski took over in 1981 and supervised the imposition of martial law.

Kania is remembered among Poles as the leader who did not shed blood.

Also dropped was former Foreign Minister Stefan Obzowski, who once challenged Jaruzelski for the top post.

Jaruzelski's re-election was never in doubt. He was warmly endorsed during the 10th party congress by Soviet Communist Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who specifically praised him for the 1981 military crackdown that crushed the independent Solidarity union.

The Central Committee cast 228 votes for Jaruzelski in a secret ballot with no other candidate, the news agency PAP said. By tradition the candidate does not vote for himself. There was no indication why the 230th member did not vote.

Two others dropped from the Central Committee were Party Secretary Wlodzimierz Mokrzyszczak and Jan Labecki of the Lenin shipyards in Solidarity's birthplace of Gdansk, where he was popular.

Alfred Miodowicz, a leader of the new Communist-run trade unions, was elected, an indication the party believes the unions again are under control. The Central Committee made Jaruzelski first party secretary at an extraordinary session in October 1981 during turmoil and Solidarity-led strikes.